


The Kingdom of Heaven

by natcat5



Category: Tokyo Ghoul
Genre: Freeform, Tarot, major arcana - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-30
Updated: 2015-03-30
Packaged: 2018-03-20 08:31:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 777
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3643611
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/natcat5/pseuds/natcat5
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Fool entered the Kingdom of Heaven on an evening in Autumn. The doors opened to him by the Devil, who pulled him in on a river of blood and christened his entry with pain and violence.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Kingdom of Heaven

**Author's Note:**

> clarification on roles in endnote.

“Won’t you come with me?” asked the Devil, disguised and smiling.

The Fool hesitated, then took her hand, returning the smile weakly.

He could not see through her disguise. He did not know how to see through the disguises of other people, as he did not know how to see through his own.

He let her lead him through the gates and tried not to jump at the sound they made as they shut behind him.

\--

The Fool entered the Kingdom of Heaven on an evening in Autumn, the doors opened to him by the Devil, who pulled him in on a river of blood and christened his entry with pain and violence.

He would stay only a shortwhile, before the demons would rend his form in two, and leave him a Fool no longer, but a martyr, hanging from a tree, destined to fall upon the blade of the Emperor himself.

But the Kingdom remembers him still.

\--

The Demons roamed around the Kingdom in fear, given the power to rule it but denied the right by the Seraphim that hunted them mercilessly, should they reveal their true nature. ‘Demons’ was the name given to them by the Seraphim, a name to denote them as the opposite of the Seraphim, as the ultimate form of evil in the Kingdom.

But ‘Demons’ was the name they were given, and what they could choose to be. Not what they were.

Monsters are only monsters in and of themselves.

But the Seraphim named them, and the Seraphim treated them as they had named them, and the Demons were hunted, for daring to exist within the Kingdom’s gilded gates.

Mutual hatred and distrust, and a thick line of difference between them, maintained a status quo of perpetual violence.

Then the Devil tricked the Fool.

\--

The Fool’s time in the Kingdom would have been momentary, would have ended in death swiftly and violently, but a Demon astride a Chariot took him under her one full wing, and guided him through the treacherous canyons and craters of the Kingdom. Bullied him along until he could at least partially stand up, stand straight, face a Demon or a Seraphim, however reluctantly. Guided him into the care of likeminded Demons, monsters not of themselves, but in name only. Gave the Fool a place to hide, so that he could maintain his inability to see through disguises, and continue to fail in seeing the world as it was.

But his naiveté gave him kindness, and the winged Chariot was fond of him. As were all monsters-not-of-themselves Demons were. The Fool, in all his innocence, could trap others in his gentleness, and made a lasting impression on those he encountered, even as he hid and cowered, determined not to fight in the Kingdom’s Holy War.

The Fool’s time in the Kingdom of Heaven was not momentary, but it was short, because his existence raised the ire of monsters-in-and-of-themselves. For The Fool’s existence was contrary, and his being offensive. A Halfling who refused to kill.

The Chariot could not fly fast enough to catch those who stole away with The Fool, Her Fool, who she had grown fond of. And though she fought, and bled, and cried, she never saw her Fool again.

In his place, was a man with hair bleached white with pain, nails stained black with dried blood, and an ever-tightening noose around his neck.

\--

The Fool’s time in the Kingdom of Heaven was short, and the Hanged Man’s stay would be even shorter.

But they are remembered still. Remembered because their existence meant change, meant possibility, and a red-tinged ray of hope in the cracked and crumbling kingdom. For the demons in the crevices and contusions, in the shadows and the lowlight, the tightening noose about his neck was seen, but ignored. Because who needs hope more than those hunted down by the Seraphim themselves?

\--

Even when the Fool-Martyr hung, there were whispers, because existence stretches larger than one’s self in death, and he had existed loudly and furiously, like a whirlwind of unstoppable will, purposefully oblivious to the taut rope, tied to the tree limb, and his own feet, dangling off the ground.

He entered the Kingdom a Fool and died a Hanged Man, was remembered as a martyr, and was held to as a Star, destined to return and continue the work he had started, before the Emperor tightened the rope around his neck.

In the Kingdom of Heaven, remembering a Star gave hope to those clinging to it. The Demons, desperately straining to escape the Seraphim swords, their lives marked for extinction, and their heroes fallen to the Emperor’s hanging tree.

**Author's Note:**

> this was never meant to see the light of day but I haven't posted anything in a really long time. 
> 
> like my msword and my tumblr are just full of crappy stuff like this that I haven't posted to AO3 but I am CONSUMED with the desire to post SOMETHING.
> 
> confusion?
> 
> The Fool: kuroneki 
> 
> The Hanged Man: shironeki 
> 
> The Chariot: Touka 
> 
> The Devil: Rize 
> 
> The Emperor: Arima 
> 
> The Demons: ghouls 
> 
> Seraphim: CCG


End file.
